F 129 

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Copy i 



Why 

-Schenectady 
Was Destroyed 
In 1690. 



u,**/ 



^ A PAPER ^ 

Read Before the Fortnightly Club of Schenectady 

IVIAY 3. 1887. BY 

JUDSON S; LAN DON. 



COPVmoHT il*7, BV J. 8. L.ANDON. 



Why Schenectady was Destroyed in 1690. 



A PAPER ^.-xxxxv,. 

READ BEFORE THE FORTNIGHTLY CLUB OF SCHENECTADY 

MAY 3rd. 1897. 
By JUDSON S. LANDON. 



On the night of the 8th of Fehiiiaiy, I»',:mi, ,,\u- luiiKhcd 
and fourteen Frenchmen and ninety-six Indians, after a 
twenty-two days' march from Montreal tluoiigh llie snow 
and the wilderness, stole in ui)on the sleepiuj; village of 
Schenectady, then containing about sixty houses and three 
Imndn-d inhabitants, massacred sixty of the inhabitants, 
pluiidiMcd and l)umed all of tlie houses, except six. and on 
the following day .set forth on their return to Montreal, 
carrying away thirty captives and a great deal of ])lnndcr, 
and leaving in destitution and hi'ljilessnt'ss such survivors as 
were too feeble to endure cai)tivity or make tlu-ir e.sc^ipe. 
The story has been often told. It is not the i)urpose of this 
l>aper to repeat it, but to attempt to group together tlie 
causes which, operating upon twij continents, liad as their 
incident or their result the destruction of Schenectady. 

First, war existed between England and France. James 
IT h.id been <lriven from the throne of England and had 
taken refuge with his Catholic protector, Louis XIV of 



2 

France. The great Dutchman, "William, Prince of Orange, 
and his wife, Maiy, daughter of the banished King James, 
became King and Queen of England. In French and 
Catholic eyes they were usurpers. Louis refused to recog- 
nize William as King of England. War was declared 
between England and France in 1089. There were other 
reasons for it than William's alleged usurpation. As 
Elector of the States General of Holland, he had. two years 
before, become the leading spirit of what was called the 
Augsburg League. This league was made between the 
States General of Holland, the Protestant princes of the 
Rhine, and the Catholic King of Spain, to resist the pre- 
tensions of Louis XIV to dictate to them, and possibly to 
crush them, one after another. A schism had arisen in the 
Catholic church between the Jansenists and the Jesuits. 
The Jansenists charged the Jesuits with debasing the 
standard of evangelical morality for the purpose of increas- 
ing their own influence, and the charge was reinforced by 
the fei'vor and genius of Blaise Pascal in his Provincial 
Letters — letters which are still faiuous, because they added 
a new glory to the French language, and new strength to 
the doctrine that true faith does not justify evil works ; 
and the Pope, Innocent XI although lie suspected the 
Jansenists of heresy, was jealous of the immense power of 
the Jesuit order. Louis took part with the Jesuits ; and 
the Pope, in r(>taliation, gave bis support to the Augsburg 
League. The Protestants joined the league, i)artly because 
Louis, in 1685, had revoked the Edict of Nantes, an edict 
undei- which such of the Protestants of France as survived 
the massacre of St. Bartholomew, in 1572, had had ])artial 
tolei'ation for eighty-seven years. War had broken out 
between Austria and Turkey, and the Augsburg League 
became the allies of Austria, and France the ally of Turkey. 
William, by becoming King of England, was able to add 
England to the enemies of France. Thus it was that the 
armies of the Pope and of the Protestants of Europe, under 
the lead of the English -Dutch King William, warred against 



the annios of llu> C'resii'iil ami tin- Jtsuit faction of tlio 
cross under the lead of the great French monarch — a war 
that was waged from the Danube and the Rhine to the hanks 
of the Boyne in Ireland. 

Of course, anumg the objects of the war between England 
and France was the dominion of the North American con- 
tinent, or at least that jiart of it which lies along the 
Atlantic coast north of the (iulf of Mexico and east of the 
St. Ijawrence and the Mississippi rivers. The French had 
taken possession of the St. I^awrence and the Mississippi 
rivers and the great lakes of the St. Lawrence basin, and 
claimed title to all the land within the watei-shed of these 
rivei-s and lakes. 

The English had their fringe of settlements along the 
Atlantic coast from the mouth of the Kenncbeck as far 
south as Charleston, S. C. The Dutch had settled New 
York, and had pushed their settlements up the Hudson 
and Mohawk to Schenectady, with a few plantations five 
or six miles beyond. The Dutch liad suriendered to the 
English in 1G64, and the province of New York was now 
governed by the English. The province, however, was 
essentially Dutch, and Schenectady almost exclusively so. 
Apart from the war between the Dutch-English and French 
governments, the French and the Dutch and English colonies 
in America bad their own cause of war, and that was their 
rivalsbip for the control of the fur trade with the Indians. 
The Dutch colony of New York was founded for the pur- 
poses of trade. Its primary object was to enrich the Dutch 
West Inilia Company. There was no religious or jiolitical 
sentiment about it, as in tliecase of the early New England 
settlements. That the Dutch finally became more of an 
agricultural community, composed of people who wislied 
to make homes for themselves in the New Netherlands, 
was a natural evolution, resulting from the fact that the 
monopolistic West India company was rapacious and tyran- 
nical, and that it was soon found out th.-it the farmer was 
surer of a comfortable living than wiis the hunter or trader. 



Besides, the colonist could liave all the land he could work. 
The Dutch were Protestants, and their notions of liberty 
were to be let alone. Father Jogues, writing of New 
Netherland, in KiAC, says : "When any one comes to settle 
in the country, they lend him horses, cows, &c. ; they give 
liim provisions, all of which he returns as soon as he is at 
ease ; as to the land, after ten years he pays to the West 
India Company the tenth of the produce which he reaps. 
* * * The English, however, come very near to them, 
choosing to hold lands under the Hollanders, who ask noth- 
ing, rather than depend on English lords, who exact rents, 
and would fain be absolute." But afterward the Dutch 
company became more exacting and the New England 
colony more liberal, so that when the Dutch colony surren- 
dered to the English, in 1(564, the intelligent Dutch farmer 
welcomed the change. He expected the government to be 
framed upon the New England models, and that he would 
keep what he had- and get rid of the restraints upon his 
trade. The result was the Dutchman prospered and his 
tribe increased. 

The French colonization of Canada had three objects — 
trade, dominion and the conversion of the Indian. That 
is to say, the French King wanted the dominion, tlie favor- 
ites of the King wanted the profits of the trade, and the J esuit 
l)nests wanted the privilege and the service of converting 
the Indians ; and these three purposes were skilfuUy com- 
bined and made co-operative. 

Tliere was not nuich I'oyal control in the English coloni- 
zation of that century. No matter what the language of 
the charter or commission to the royal governors, the col- 
onists themselves either seized the lielm of government, as 
in New England, or controlled, either by ))ersuasion or 
turbulence, its movements, as in New York. The ])eoplc 
took care of tliemselves, sought to make their own fortunes, 
and practically reduced the government to non-interference 
witli their liberties. 

French colonization, on the other hand, was minutely 



rt'giilatfd and restiirtotl by the lionic govornnuMit. Tin- 
rate of increase was very unequal. In li'.lM) the jji-ovince 
of New York liad about 18,000. The New England col- 
onies togetiier about ir>i\00(\ while the entire French 
jiopulatiou of Canada did not exceed 1"J,UU(). Thus the 
aggregate of the Enghsh and Dutch people in New England 
and New York exceeded the French in Canada fourteen 
times. But the French ]>rovince was under one govern- 
ment, while the English colonies were under several. The 
New England colonies foi'nied a confederation for nmtual 
defense, but New York stood alone until after the destruc- 
tion of Schenectady, when, in May, IC.Imi. the New England 
and New York colonies met by their delegates in Alb.uiy, 
and concerted measures for the common attack upon the 
French and defense against them. This was the first 
American Congress. 

The French sought to compensate for their great dispar- 
ity in numbei-s by making allies of the Indian tribes. This 
had been the French policy from the beginning, in Uio4. 
It was the French policy to attract the Indians by trade, 
and to hold them by conversion to Christianity. Tlir 
Jesuit priests wen- the missionaries, who zealously under- 
took the labor of converting the Indians. If successful, 
France would enjoy the profits of the Indian trade in times 
of peace, and have the supjwrt of the Christian, or "i)ray- 
ing Indians," as they were called, in times of war. It nmst 
be said, to the lasting honor of the Jesuit missionary, that 
he was actuated by as consecrated and unseKish devotion 
to his sense of duty as the aimals of lofty .self-.sacritice 
record. 

A chain of Jesuit missions was established from the ( lulf 
of St. Lawrence as far west as the Lake of the Woods, 
anil in these, far away from civilization and tlu> f.ices of 
white men, the Jesuit priests, amid the .scpialor, dirt, inde 
cency and misery of the savage tribes, devoted their sym- 
pathy, their labor and their lives to the s;dvation of the 
souls of these uinegenerate chihlren of nature. To aid in 



— fl — 

snatching a (lying soul from Hell's burning pit was with 
these earnest devotees the higliest service in whicli life 
could be spent or sacrificed. With a self-denial that chal- 
lenges the admiration of mankind, these men welcomed 
with delight the order of their superior, which bade them 
carry the emblem of the cross to the heathen. 

Several of the priests kept a record of their labors and 
experience. These "Relations" remain to us. They are 
not only the amazing chronicles of the cajiacity of the 
human mind, when inspired and sustained by religious zeal, 
to rise above and remain superior to the most wretched and 
depressing surroundings, but they are also among the most 
complete and instructive descriptions of Indian life and 
character now extant. 

The native tribes that inhabited the valleys of the St. 
Lawrence and Ottawa rivers and the northerly shores of 
the great lakes, were easily and strongly impressed by the 
picturesque symbols and the simple and zealous expositions 
of the Christian faith presented by the Jesuit fathers. 
Great numbers professed conversion. 

The English and Dutch took little account of the Indians, 
except to protect themselves against, them and profit by 
their trade. It is true that the English charters usually 
recited that one object of tlie colony was to carry the bless- 
ings of the Christian religion to the benighted savages, and 
it is true that a few devoted men, of whom Ehot was the 
most remarkable for successful results, and Brainard for 
self-denial, devoted tlieir lives to the conversion of the In- 
dians to the Protestant religion. With few exceptions the 
efforts made by the Protestants to convert the Indians were 
feeble and sjiasmodic, deriving their vigor from individual 
jnety and zeal instead of from the government. Tlie Indian 
mind and language readily lend themselves to symbohc and 
picturesque methods of thought and expression, but sti-ug- 
gle vaguely with abstract conceptions when not tlius illus- 
trated. Thus the Catholic French succeeded far better 



than the Protostaut EngUsh and Dutch in thi-ir missionary 
label's. Wherever the Jesuit priest maintained his mis- 
sion, there the fur trade with the Indians was secured to 
tlie FrtMicli ; there French pohcv prevailed, and the "pray- 
ing Indians" became the friends and, to some extent, the 
allies of the French. Could this policy of conversion, 
friendsliip and trade be continued and extended, it was not 
ditUcult to foresee that the North American continent, from 
the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi, would be possessed by French and Indians, and 
governed by the French. 

Opposed to the success of such a scheme of colonization 
were the English colonies on the seal)oard and the Dutch - 
English colony of Now York. But the most annoying, 
and at that time perhaps the greatest obstacle to the suc- 
cess of the French scheme was the Iroquois confederacy of 
Indians, the Five Nations of New York. 

This remarkable confederacy, consisting of the Mohawks 
on the east, the Senecas on the west, with the Oneidas, 
Onondagas and Cayugas between, occupied what is now 
cential New York, from the Hudson to beyond the (Jene- 
see. This confederacy of nations was the friend of the 
Dutch colony of New York and the enemy of the northein 
and north westeiii races, who opened thcii- villages to tlie 
Jesuits and gave their fur trade to the French. In 104:3 
the New York colony, Kieft being governor, very treach- 
erou.sly made war upon some AlgoiKiuin tribes who inhab- 
ited near Manhattan Island. The Mohawks c;laimed tiiat 
these southern tribes were under their protection, and 
they avenged Kieft's treachery and waged a desultory war 
against the Dutch for five years ami nearly exterminated 
them. In the end the Dutch made a treaty witii the 
Iro«iuoi.s, humiliating in its terms, but which really proved 
to be of the utmost service to them. The Dutch ob.served 
its provisions so faithfully and therearter dealt with the 
iroipiois so fairly and kindly as to inspire them with respect 



— ft — 

and affection. The English, succeeding in li;r>l to the 
government of the colony, were 'wise enough to cherish 
this friendly alliance. 

The Iroquois were a brave and warlike i^eople. In sys- 
tematic government and native intelligence they were far 
in advance of most of the northern tribes. They were 
kind and faithful to their friends, but i^racticed every sav- 
age cruelty upon their enemies. Their skulls were larger 
than those of any other tribe of aborigines in North or 
South America. Besides their resources of fish, game and 
furs, they permitted their women to cultivate plantations 
of Indian corn, beaus and pumpkins. Manual labor, except 
in pursuit of game or the enemy, was unworthy an Indian 
man. Their power and prowess were respected and feared 
by the other tribes north of the Gulf of Mexico and east of 
the Mississippi. 

From the first the Iroquois become the enemies of the 
French. In 1009, before Hudson ascended the river 
which bears his name, the Frenchman, Samuel Champlain, 
with two French followers and a war party of Hurous 
and Algonqnins, marched southward from Montreal 
and came to the lake, which in like manner perpetu- 
ates the name of Champlain, and ascended it in canoes as 
far as Ticonderoga. There they met a party of the Iroquois 
and engaged them in battle. Champlain and his two 
French companions fired their guns upon the Iroquois, and 
thus brought upon th(>m consternation and defeat. These 
were the first white men they ever saw and the first guns 
they over heard. In IfilO, and again in 1610, Champlain, 
as the ally of the Hurons and Algonqnins, defeated the 
Iroquois by the use of firearms. It was plain to the Ii'o- 
(juois tliat unless they also could obtain firearms tlioir long- 
established supremacy over all the other Indian nations 
was at an end. Wlieii, therefore, the Dutch came up the 
Hudson, the Mohawks received them kindly, partly becaus(> 
they were afraid of the guns of wliito men, and partly also 
because, when tiny discovered they were not Frenchmen, 



— — 

they lioped to obtain from tlu-m thf same kind of firearms 
which the Hurons and Algontjiiins had received from the 
French. Thus tlie Moliawks early found that the Dutch 
were as useful to them as the French were to the Hurons 
and Algonquins. The Dutch furnished them with guns 
and ammunition, and they soon regained their lost 
ascendency. The Mohawks and the Dutch north of the 
Catskills early made a treaty of peace at tlie Norman's Kill 
near Albany, and this treaty was observed, renewed and 
continued, with, it is true, occasional waverings and inter- 
ruptions, until the breaking out of tiie war of the Revolu- 
tion in 177."). The white man then abandoned his fealty 
to the King of Great Britain, hut the Inxjuois remained 
faithful to his long pledged alliance, and because of his 
tidelity to it his people were wasted, his hunting grounds 
were taken from him, and the renmant of his tribes became 
vagabonds in the land over which their fathers had been 
rulers. 

As the French claimed all the watershed of the St. Law- 
rence valley, their claim embraced a portion of the Iroquois 
territory in northern and western New York. In supjtort 
of this claim the French and Indian allies had made 
fre<[uent incursions into this territory, but without any 
pei-manent success. 

The French were also sedulous in their efforts to convert 
the Iroquois tribe to Christianity, as well as the Hurons 
and Algonquins. In these efforts many of the Jesuit priests 
laid down their lives— martyrs to their faith and sen.se of 
duty. The chief obstacle to their success with the hxxjuois 
was that the religion they taught was so readily accepted 
by their enemies, the Hvirons and Algoncpiins. In their 
wai-s against them the Irocjuois sjiared neither priest nor 
convert. History preserves in reverent honor the names of 
Fathers Daniel, Lalemant, Brebeuf and others, mission- 
aries to the Hurons, who jjerished by the bloody hands of 
the Iroquois. Among the martyrs was (he s.iintly F.itber 
Jogues, whcse monument in the form of a shrine to the 



— 10 — 

Virgin, " Our Lady of Martyrs," stands upon the southern 
bank of the Mohawk, at Auriesville, a few miles west of 
us, within sight of the windows of the passing cars of the 
New Yoi'k Central Railroad. Father Jogues himself, in a 
letter still preserved, recounts in a strain of touching sim- 
plicity the tortures he and his companion, Eene Coupil, 
suffered while captives upon a previous occasion in the 
hands of the Mohawks, the death of his comi^anion, and 
his own ultimate escape. But he afterward returned to 
the Mohawk 'country, hoping to convert the very savages 
who had tortured and maimed him. But the Mohawks, 
after wavering between accepting him as a teacher and 
priest, or coiidenming him as an enchanter, who had de- 
stroyed their harvests, finally adopted the latter alterna- 
tive ; they cut off his head, placed it on a pole with the 
face toward Canada, as a warning of the fate his imitators 
might expect, and thi-ew his body into the river. This was 
iu 1646, near the place where the shrine now stands. 

But the zeal of the Jesuits was superior to their fear of 
savage cruelty. At last, in 1658, the Onondagas admitted 
the priests into their villages, and soon after the Oneidas, 
Senecas and Cayugas did the same. The Mohawks were 
less indulgent. They understood that to favor the Jesuits 
was to displease their Dutch friends at Schenectady and 
Albany. But the Jesuits Ihially won their way into the 
Caughnawaga (Fonda) family or castle, and succeeded in 
making many converts. In 1671 they induced most of 
the converted Mohawks to migrate to Canada, where in a 
new Caughnawaga, near Montreal, their descendants still 
remain. These converted emigrants were the "i)raying 
Indians," who, with the Fi-ench, destroyed Schenectady 
in 16i»0. 

The Frencli, however, nevcn- succeeded in establishing a 
porniant-nt foothold or inlhience among the great body of 
tlie lr()(|U()is. "^i'he priests could not change tlieir savage 
natures. The (;onvert would revert. The French still 
continued tlicir alliance and frimidsliip with their Indian 



— 11 — 

allies, the ancient enemies of the Iroquois. Naturally 
strifes arose, and war fi>ll<i\ve(l in whicli the French were 
gi'eatly reduced. In 1UG5 France w;us constrained to send 
a fresh regiment of troops to Canada to restore her fallen 
fortunes. They built a fort near where Lake Ontario dis- 
charges into the St. Lawrence, afterward called Fort 
Frontenac. This served to hold the Iroijuois in check and 
as a base for the fur trade of the lakes. 

In lii72 Frontenac became Governor General of Canada. 
Ho was a man of great vigor and skill. He speedily divined 
the Indian character, and conducted his affairs with the 
Indians with masterly address. Adroit in conciliation, 
where conciliation failed, he carried fire and sword. The 
Iroijuois were astonished and alarmed at Frontenac's vigor 
and boldness, and it needed all the skill and address of the 
English to dissuade them from making alliances with him. 
Frontenac carried war into the Irotjuois villages, with such 
success that he finally succeeded in extorting a treaty from 
them, which for a time at least secured a nominal peace. 
After ten yeai-sof his vigorous rule, Frontenac was recalled 
by bis King in \C,<-2. and reniaiiieil away until UJSO, when, 
war having been declared by England and France, the King 
sent Frontenac again to Canada, in order that he might 
have the benefit of his great abilities in wresting from the 
English their American colonies. Meantime the French 
government of Canada had jjcrpetrated a great outrage 
upon the Iroquois. In ItJs". the French, having invited 
fifty chiefs of their triljcs to a confeicnco at the French 
camp at Onondaga, the French seized them upon their 
arrival, and sent them as captives to France, where they 
were consigned to service in the galleys at Marseilles. 

Those of you who have read Chateaubrian<rs Atala will 
reciill liow this outrage is made to finiiisli .in inti'irsting 
actor in tliat dcligiilful story. 

E.xasperated by this treachery, thr irociuois the next year 
marched upon Montreal. In lil it (inwx .\ngiist until (icto- 

iofC 



— la- 
bel-, theu destroyed it, laid waste the settlements iu the 
vicinity, and returned home laden with booty. 

The English Kings, Charles II and James II, were not 
ashamed to sue for and accept the bounty of the French 
King, Louis XIV. The natural outcome of this dejjend- 
ancy was that the English governors of New York were 
advised by their Kings not to be too zealous in resisting 
the French pretensions to the Iroquois territory and tlie 
French aggressions upon their tribes. But the English 
soon found out that the friendship of the Iroquois was their 
chief bulwark against French invasion. 

Thomas Dongau was governor of the province of New 
York from 1683 to 1688, and he obtained the reluctant con- 
sent of James II to take the Irotpiois under his protection 
as English subjects, whence it followed that he must pro- 
tect them against French assault. Governor Dongan was 
a Catholic, but not a Jesuit. He was making preparations 
for an assault upon Fort Frontenac and the French military 
post at Niagara, when he was superseded, in KiSS, by Ed- 
mond Andros, to whom James confided the government, 
not only of New York, but of New Jersey and all of the 
New England colonies. Governor Andros ruled the 
province through his lieutenant-governor, Nicholson. Gov- 
ei'uor Nicholson, following the New York policy, forbade 
the French to attack the Iroquois, and demanded that Fort 
Frontenac, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, should be 
destroyed and the French post at Niagara abandoned. The 
French abandoned both post and fort. This testified to the 
Indians that the Englisli were the superior powei-. It 
diverted the trade of tlio jKuthwest from the French to the 
English. 

It was when the Ficiicli were thus humiliated by the 
English, and Montreal laid waste by the Iroquois, that 
h'lonteuac returned. He had not expected the situation 
lliat confronted liini. lie had arranged with the French 
nioiiaich a plan lor the (■a))tinvof New York. Troojts were 
to march from Montreal by way of LakeChamplain, capture 



— 13 — 

Albany on tin- way, and tlion assail New York by land, 
wbilo the lueu-of-war ilfspatilied from France were to 
lainionade the city from the harbor. The two men-of-war 
sailed with Frontenac, and awaited ou the eastern shore of 
Nova Scotia the jouniey of Frontenac to Quebec and Mou- 
tieal, the collection of his troops, and the news of their de- 
jiurture upon their march toward New York. But when 
Frontenac learned of the invasion of his province by the 
Irocjuois and the havoc they had wi-ought, he was forced to 
abandon the expedition against All)any and New York. 
Witli such forces as he could command he pioceeded to the 
relief of Montreal. He again sought to tenify the Iro- 
(piois by tlu'eats of his vengeance, holding out at the same 
time offers of conciliation. The Indians affected to despise 
his weakness and to magnify the superior strength of the 
Englisli. lie could not i)ursue them to their homes in the 
wilderness, but bo could ravage the frontier settlements of 
the English, and thus not only destroy them, but at the 
same time con\'ince the Iroquois that he retained his ancient 
strength. He knew their respect and admiration for bold- 
ness and success, and he resolved to win it at the least cost 
and hazard to himself. He could still summon to his aid 
tlie '■ jiraying Indians." He directed a descent upon sev- 
eral English towns in New England and upon Albany in 
New York. In the incursion upon Albany the *'i»raying 
Indians," who had lieen convei'ted by the Jesuits at Caugh- 
nawaga (Fonda) on the Mtjhawk and were now living in the 
new Caughnawaga on the St. Lawrence, weie found ready 
to take part. They knew the country ; .some of their own 
peoi)le had fallen in the Iroquois raid of the previous year, 
and they were willing to serve the French and eager to 
avenge tiieir fallen brothers. The cxjiedition was formed 
and started upon its journey. The toilsome march through 
the wilderness and the deep snow depressed the spirit of 
(lie Indians, ;ind when they re.ncbed a point on the Hudson 
wiiere the paths to Albany and Schenectady sep.-vrated, 
they took the path toward Schenectady . 



— 14 — 

The recent political troubles in tlio Province of New 
York had contributed to render Schenectady singularly ex- 
posed to ouch an assault. 

AVhen the news of the abdication of James II reached 
New York, it was followed by confusion and anarchy. 
The adherents of William and Mary insisted that the 
governor appointed by James had no further aiithority, 
and they appointed a committee of safety who chose J acob 
Leisler captain, and clothed him with the powers of gov- 
ernor, to be exercised until the new King and Queen should 
signify their pleasure. Leisler was of humble oiigin and 
of little education, and the aristocrats of the province 
would not recognize his authority. They still professed 
adherence to James, and rallied to the support of Nichol- 
son, who was lieutenant governor under Andros. C4ov- 
eruor Nicholson soon became so frightened that ho sailed 
away to England, leaving his powers with his council. 
The political magnates at Albany would not recognize 
Leisler, and the people of Schenectadj^ were divided in 
their sentiments, and though warned of their danger 
by the friendly Mohawks, still, incapable of union, 
they failed to obey either power and fell into anarchy 
and subsisted without any government. The result 
was that, though the village was surrounded by a 
stockade and had a garrison of eight soldiers conmianded 
by a lieutenant, the gates of the stockade were upon this 
night of destruction left open and unguarded, and citizens 
and soldiers slept the sleep of the just. The destruction 
was nearly as comjjlete as the assailants desired to make 
it. It was ajiplauded at Versailles and Paris, as a blow 
both to England and to heresy, and it was recounted in 
the wigwams, castles and "long house" of the Iroquois 
as evidence of the mighty daring and i)rowess of the great 
Frontenac. 

Governor Leisler's fate is of interest : It was a sad 
one. Instead of being conunended for his zeal anil courage 
he had the misfortune to be arrested upon the comi)laiut of 



— 15 — 

his enemies, charging him with high treason in usurping 
the gDvrriiinent; he was also rhargcil witli the rrsixinsi- 
hility for the massacre at Sclienectady. In vain did his 
friends i)lead his loyalty to William and Mary, and his de- 
votion to the welfare of the province. He was a Huguenot, 
and his enemies answered, that his real motive was lios- 
tility to the Church nf England. He and his son-in-law, 
Jacoh Milhurne, wlio liad vigorously aided him, his secre- 
tary. Ahram (Jouverneur, and five otliers, were convicted 
of high treason and sentenced to death. Gouverneur and 
the five othei-s were reprieved, hut Leisler and Milhurno 
were hung, May 16, 1691, the gibhet being erected neai* 
where the New York Trihuue l)uilding now stands. Their 
est^ites wei-e also confiscated. 

The new governor, Sloughter, supposing that anajjplica- 
tion had been made to William and Mary for their jtardon, 
was unwilling to sign the death warrant until he should 
hear the result of the application. But Governor I^eis- 
ler's enemies had suppressed the ai)plication; they then 
managed to get Governor Slougliter drunk, and then to 
l)rocure his signature to the warrant, whereupon Ciovernor 
Leisler and Mr. Milburae were hung before Governor 
Sloughter became .sober. The parliain(>nt of England af- 
tenvards reversed their attainder and restored tlieir estates 
to their heirs. Ahrain Gouverneur, who had been re- 
prieved, married Leisler's daughter, the widow of Milbunie, 
and he, being elected to the assendtly, was cho.sen speaker, 
and succeeded in i)rocuring the asseinl)ly to pass an act to 
pay Leisler's heirs one thousand jwunds on account of the 
money which Leisler had expended in defence of the 
province. 

My narration ends hero. I am obliged to .sacrifice detail 
to condensation, hut I hope it is not uninteresting to you 
to re<;dl tliat the destruction of this infant village was one 
of the results of the .strife between the Christian and the 
Turk, the Pope and the Jesuits, England and the allied 
powers of Europe against Franco and Turkey, the alliance 



— 16 — 

of Pope and Protestant, the alliance of Canadian French 
with Hurons, Algonciuins, and the Mohawk "praying 
Indians," the alliance of the Dutch and English of New 
York with the Iroquois nation, the strife for the dominion 
of the North American continent, and last but not least, 
the political dissensions in the province of New York that 
followed upon tlie abdication of James II, and the accession 
of William and Mary, King and Queen, of ever blessed 
memory. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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